1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to a toy slot car system, and in particular, to a toy slot car system that simulates off-road type racing.
2. Brief Statement Of The Prior Art
Track set racing systems have been popular and well known as slot car racing for over 20 years. Typically the systems employ miniature cars, trucks or similar vehicles which run side-by-side, on smooth-surfaced, slotted plastic track. Each vehicle is provided with its own slotted course and has a short pin that extends downwardly into a slot to steer the vehicle along the course. On opposite sides of the slot, metallic strips are positioned slightly above the track surface and these metallic strips conduct electrical power which is tapped by metallic contacts from the underside of the car chassis which ride across the surface of the metallic strips. The typical slot car system as thus described in satisfactory for speed-oriented racing on smooth surfaces. It is totally useless for the simulation of off-road type performance of toy vehicles over rough or irregularly surfaced terrain. The bouncing and jostling of the vehicles over such irregularly surfaced terrain repeatedly separates the vehicle's electrical contacts from the track strips, thereby repeatedly interrupting the power to the vehicles. As a consequence, all slot car race track sets, heretofore, have utilized smooth surfaced rate courses and no system has been devised to simulate off-road racing.
Another toy vehicle and track system has used cars with electrical motors and batteries, which cars are guided by a flexible tubular track. The toy vehicle's wheels ride on the floor surface on either side of flexible tube. This system is not as popular as slot car racing and has many disadvantages including a very limited provision for interaction between the operator and the toy vehicle.